Network accounting and billing system and method

ABSTRACT

In some embodiments, network traffic information is captured at network information sources. These sources provide detailed information about the network communications transactions at a network device. Importantly, different types of sources can provide different types of information. Gatherer devices gather the detailed information from the various information source devices and convert the information into standardized information. The gatherer devices can correlate the gathered information with account information for network transaction accounting. Manager devices manage the gatherer devices and store the gathered standardized information. The manager devices eliminate duplicate network information that may exist in the standardized information. The manager devices also consolidate the information. Importantly, the information stored by the manager devices represents the consolidated, account correlated, network transaction information that can be used for billing or network accounting. The system thereby provides a distributed network accounting and billing system.

This application is a certification of provisional application Nos.60/109,095 filed Nov. 19, 1998, 60/066,095 filed Nov. 20, 1997 andPCT/US 98/24963 filed Nov. 20, 1995.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialsthat are subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patentdisclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patents,files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever.

The present application claims priority of a PCT application filed Nov.20, 1998 under Ser. No. PCT/US98/24963, a first provisional patentapplication filed Nov. 20, 1997 under Ser. No. 60/066,898, and a secondprovisional patent application filed Nov. 19, 1998 under Ser. No.60/109,095.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the field of computer networks. In particular,the invention relates to accounting and billing for services in acomputer network.

B. Description of the Related Art

The low cost of Internet connectivity and a wide range of services aredriving and more people onto the Internet, which is driving thedeployment of TCP/IP networks. This process has led to a new market ofclient-server applications that enables the user to interact with otherusers and computer systems around the world. The use of theseapplications is consuming more and more Intranet and Internet bandwidth.

New applications such as “voice over IP (Internet Protocol)” andstreaming audio and video require even more bandwidth and a differentquality of service than email, or other less real-time applications.Also, the type quality of service can vary according to the needs of theuser. For example, typically, businesses do not tolerate unavailablenetwork services as easily as consumers. Internet Service Providers(ISPs) therefore would like to price their available bandwidth accordingto a user's needs. For example,flat monthly pricing may be the bestbilling model for consumers, but businesses may want to be billedaccording to their used bandwidth at particular qualities of service.

As ISPs continue to differentiate themselves by providing additionalservices, enterprise information technology managers will face similarproblems to account for the escalating Intranet operating costs.

Therefore, ISPs and enterprise information technology managers will wantto account for session logging, bandwidth usage, directory data andapplication session information from a variety of sources.

Due to the diversity of IP data sources (e.g., routers, hubs etc.), theneed for effect tracking far exceeds the problems addressed by telephonecompanies. Telephone companies track information such as circuit usageso it can be correlated with account information. For example,businesses may use leased lines, consumers may have “Friends and Family”plans, cellular phones have different roamer fees according to thelocation of the user, etc. Typically, the phone company captures all ofthe data and uses batch processing to aggregate the information intospecific user accounts. For example, all the long distance calls madeduring a billing period are typically correlated with the Friends andFamily list for each phone account at the end of a billing period forthat account. This requires a significant amount of computing power.However, this type of problem is significantly simpler than attemptingto track and bill for every transaction in an IP network. Therefore,what is desired is a system that allows for accounting and billing oftransactions on IP based networks.

The problem is even more difficult in IP network traffic because theinformation sources can exist and many different levels of the OSInetwork model, throughout heterogeneous networks. Potential sources ofinformation include packet use from routers, firewall authenticationlogging, email data, ISP session logging, and application layer useinformation. Therefore, what is desired is a system and method thattrack IP network usage information across multiple layers of the OSInetwork model.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A network accounting and billing system and method are described. Insome embodiments, the system can access any network related informationsources such as traffic statistics provided by routers and switchinghubs as well as application server access logs. The information can beaccumulated in a central database for creating auditing, accounting andbilling reports. Alternatively, the information can be sent directly toother systems such as rating engines used in customer care and billingsystems.

In one embodiment, network traffic information is captured at networkinformation sources (examples of information sources include networkdevices). These sources provide detailed information about the networkcommunications transactions at a network device. Importantly, differenttypes of sources can provide different types of information. Gathererdevices gather the detailed information from the various informationsource devices and convert the information into standardizedinformation. The gatherer devices can correlate the gathered informationwith account information for network transaction accounting. Managerdevices manage the gatherer devices and store the gathered standardizedinformation. The manager devices eliminate duplicate network informationthat may exist in the standardized information. The manager devices alsoconsolidate the information. Importantly, the information stored by themanager devices represents the consolidated, account correlated, networktransaction information used for billing. In addition to accountinformation, transaction information can be correlated to otherinformation such as geography information (e.g., the location of anaccessed server) and/or transaction routing information (as may be usedin peering agreements between Internet Service Providers). The systemthereby provides a distributed network accounting and billing system.

In some embodiments, the gatherer devices can access sources throughproxy gateways, firewalls, and/or address translation barriers.

In some embodiments, the gatherer devices can correlate the informationabout a specific transaction with a particular account by accessing thetransaction's source and/or destination information. The source and/ordestination information is then correlated with account information froman account information database.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The figures illustrate the invention by way of example. The invention isnot meant to be limited to only those embodiments of shown in theFigures. The same reference in different figures indicates the sameelement is being used in those figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system including one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the data distillation used in thesystem of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates data enhancements used in the data distillation.

FIG. 4A illustrates example field enhancements that can be included inthe data enhancements.

FIG. 4B illustrates the creation of an enhanced record.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example record merge.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an alternative embodiment of thesystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A. System Overview

One embodiment of the system includes a multi-source, multi-layernetwork usage metering and mediation solution that gives Network ServiceProviders (NSPs), including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) andenterprise network(Intranet) operators, the information needed to setthe right-price for IP (Internet Protocol) services. With the system,the providers can generate accurate usage-based billing and implementusage-based charge-back models. The system derives IP session andtransaction information, collected in real time, from a multitude ofnetwork elements. The system gathers, correlates, and transforms datafrom routers, switches, firewalls, authentication servers, LDAP, Webhosts, DNS, and other devices to create comprehensive usage and billingrecords.

The system transforms raw transaction data from network devices intouseful billing records though policy-based filtering, aggregation, andmerging. The result is a set of detail records (DRs). In someembodiments, the detail records are XaCCT Detail Records (XDRs™)available from XaCCT Technologies. DRs are somewhat similar in conceptto the telephony industry's Call Detail Records (CDRs). Thus, DRs can beeasily integrated with existing Customer Care and Billing (CCB) systems.

In addition to billing data, DRs enable NSPs to deploy new servicesbased on documented usage trends, plan network resource provisioning,and audit service usage. The system provides a clear picture ofuser-level network service use by tracking a variety of metrics such asactual session Quality of Service (QoS),traffic routes, and end-userapplication transactions.

The system is based on a modular, distributed, highly scalablearchitecture capable of running on multiple platforms. Data collectionand management is designed for efficiency to minimize impact on thenetwork and system resources.

The system minimizes network impact by collecting and processing dataclose to its source. Modular architecture provides maximum configurationflexibility, and compatibility with multiple network informationsources.

The system, or other embodiments, may have one or more of the followingfeatures.

Data collection can be from a wide range of network devices andservices, spanning all layers of the network - from the physical layerto the application layer.

Real-time, policy-based filtering, aggregation, enhancement and mergingcreates accurate, detailed and comprehensive session detail records(DRs).

Real time correlation of data from various sources allows billing recordenhancement.

Leverages existing investment through integration with any customer care& billing solution, reducing costs, minimizing risks and shortenedtime-to-market.

Non-intrusive operation eliminates any disruption of network elements orservices.

Web-based user interface allows off-the-shelf browsers to access thesystem, on-demand, locally or remotely.

Carrier-class scalability allows expansion to fit an NSPs needs withoutcostly reconfiguration.

Distributed filtering and aggregation eliminates system capacitybottlenecks.

Efficient, centralized system administration allows on-the-fly systemreconfigurations and field upgrades.

Customized reporting with built-in report generation or an NSPs choiceof off-the-shelf graphical reporting packages.

Comprehensive network security features allow secure communicationbetween system components and multiple levels of restricted access.

B. System Details

The following describes the system 100 of FIG. 1. The system 100 allowsNSPs to account for and bill for IP network communications. Thefollowing paragraphs first list the elements of FIG. 1, then describesthose elements and then describes how the elements work together.Importantly, the distributed data gathering, filtering and enhancementsperformed in the system 100 enables load distribution. Granular data canreside in the peripheries of the system 100, close to the informationsources. This helps avoids reduce congestion in network bottlenecks butstill allows the data to be accessible from a central location. Inprevious systems, all the network information flows to one location,making it very difficult to keep up with the massive record flows fromthe network devices and requiring huge databases.

The following lists the elements of FIG. 1. FIG. 1 includes a number ofinformation source modules (ISMs) including an ISM 110, an ISM 120, anISM 130, an ISM 136, an ISM 140, and an ISM 150. The system alsoincludes a number of network devices, such as a proxy server 101, a DNS102, a firewall 103, an LDAP 106, a CISCO NetFlow 104, and a RADIUS 105.The system also includes a number of gatherers, such as a gatherer 161,a gatherer 162, a gatherer 163, a gatherer 164, and a gatherer 165. Thesystem of FIG. 1 also includes a central event manager (CEM) 170 and acentral database (repository) 175. The system also includes a userinterface server 185 and a number terminals or clients 180.

This paragraph describes how the elements of FIG. 1 are coupled. Thevarious network devices represent devices coupled to an IP network suchas the Internet. The network devices perform various functions, such asthe proxy server 101 providing proxy service for a number of clients.Each network device is coupled to a corresponding ISM. For example, theproxy server 101 is coupled to the ISM 110. The DNS 102 is coupled tothe ISM 120. The firewall 103 is coupled to the ISM 130. The ISM 136 iscoupled to the LDAP 106. The ISM 140 is coupled to the CISCO NetFlow104. The ISM 150 is coupled to the RADIUS 105. Each gatherer isassociated with at least one ISM. Thus, the gatherer 161 is associatedwith the ISM 110 and is therefore coupled to that ISM. The gatherer 162is coupled to the ISM 120. The gatherer 163 is coupled to the ISM 130and the ISM 136. The gatherer 164 is coupled to the ISM 140. Thegatherer 165 is coupled to the ISM 150. The various gatherers arecoupled to the CEM 170. The user interface server is coupled to theterminals 180 and the CEM 170.

The following paragraphs describe each of the various elements of FIG.1.

Network Devices

The network devices represent any devices that could be included in anetwork. (Throughout the description, a network device, unlessspecifically noted otherwise, also refers to an application server.) Anetwork device represents a subset of information sources that can beused by the system 100. That is, the network devices are merelyrepresentative of the types of sources of information that could beaccessed. Other devices such as on-line transaction processing databasescan be accessed in other embodiments of the invention. Typically, thenetwork devices keep logging and statistical information about theiractivity. A network information source can be the log file of a mailserver, the logging facility of a firewall, a traffics statistics tableavailable on a router and accessible through SNMP, a database entryaccessible through the Internet, an authentication server's queryinterface, etc. The network devices represent the information sourcesaccessed by the ISMs.

Each type of network device can be accessing using a different method orprotocols. Some generate logs while others are accessible via SNMP,others have proprietary APIs or use other protocols.

ISMS

The ISMs act as an interface between the gatherers and the networkdevices enabling the gatherers to collect data from the network devices.Thus, the ISMs represent modular, abstract interfaces that are designedto be platform-neutral. The information source modules act as interfacesor “translators”, sending IP usage data, in real time, from the networkdevices to the gatherers. Each ISM is designed for a specific type ofnetwork data source. (In other embodiments, some ISM are generic in thatthey can extract information from multiple network devices). ISMs can bepackaged separately, allowing NSPs to customize ISM configurations tomeet the specific requirements of their network. For example, in thesystem of FIG. 1, if the NSP did not have Cisco NetFlow devices, thenthe ISM 140 would not have to be included.

The ISMs can communicate with its corresponding network device usingprotocols and formats such as UDP/IP, TCP/IP, SNMP, telnet, file access,ODBC, native API, and others.

In some embodiments, the reliability of system 100 is enhanced throughon-the-fly dynamic reconfiguration, allowing the NSP to add or removemodules without disrupting ongoing operations. In these embodiments, theCEM 170 can automatically update the ISMs.

The following ISMs are available in some embodiments of the invention.

Categorizer—Classifies a session to a category according to user-definedBoolean expression.

DNS (e.g. ISM 120)—Resolves host names and IP addresses.

Generic Proxy Server (e.g., ISM 110)—Collects data from access logs in a

common log format.

Port/Protocol Resolution—Converts protocol/port information to accountnames and vice versa.

CheckPoint FireWall-1—Collects data from FireWall-1 accounting log andsecurity log.

Cisco IOS IP Accounting—Collects accounting data from a Cisco routerusing IOS IP accounting.

Cisco NetFlow Switching—Collects session data from a Cisco router viaNetFlow switching.

Netscape Proxy Server—Collects data from a Netscape Proxy Server.

Microsoft Proxy Server—Collects data from a Microsoft Proxy Server.

ISMs can be synchronous, asynchronous or pipe.

The data from an asynchronous ISM is dynamic so that the asynchronousISM reacts to the information and relays it to the associated gathererwithout prompting from other information sources in the system 100. Ifthe firewall 103 were a CheckPoint-FireWall-1, then the ISM 130 would bean example of an asynchronous ISM. When a network session is initiated,the details are recorded by the FireWall-1 103. The corresponding ISM130 receives the details and passes them on automatically to thegatherer 163.

Synchronous ISMs provide its information only when accessed by agatherer. The ISM 120 is an example of a synchronous ISM. The DNS server102 maintains information matching the IP addresses of host computers totheir domain addresses. The ISM 120 accesses the DNS server 102 onlywhen the ISM 120 receives a request from the gather 162. When the DNSserver 102 returns a reply, the ISM 120 relays the reply information tothe gatherer 162.

Pipe ISMs operate on record flows (batches of records received frominformation sources). Pipe ISMs process one or more enhancement flowsthe records as the flows arrive. The pipe ISM may initiate new recordflows or may do other things such as generate alerts or provisionnetwork elements to provide or stop services. The pipe is implemented asan ISM to keep the internal coherency and logic of the architecture.(Record flows can terminate in a database or in a pipe ISM. The pipe ISMcan perform filtering and aggregation, send alarms, or act as amediation system to provision network elements when some event occurs orsome accumulated value is surpassed. Specifically, pipe ISMs can act toenable pre-payment systems to disable certain services such as a voiceIP call, when the time limit is surpassed or amount of data is reached.)

The gatherers can include caches and buffers for storing informationfrom the ISMs. The buffers allow the gatherers to compensate forsituations where there is a loss of connection with the rest of thesystem 100. The cache sizes can be remotely configured. The cacheminimizes the number of accesses to the Information Source.

ISM queries can be cached and parallelized. Caching of synchronous ISMqueries provides for fast responses. Parallelizing queries allows formultiple queries to be processed at the same time.

Gatherers

The gatherers gather the information from the ISMs. In some embodiments,the gatherers are multi-threaded, lightweight, smart agents that run onnon-dedicated hosts, as a normal user application on Windows NT or Unix,as a background process, or daemon. What is important though is that thegatherers can be any hardware and/or software that perform the functionsof a gatherer.

The gatherers can be installed on the same network segment as thenetwork device such as router and switch or on the application serveritself. This placement of a gatherer minimizes the data traffic impacton the network.

The gatherers collect network session data from one or more ISMs.Session data can be sent to another gatherer for enhancement or to theCEM 170 for merging and storing in the central database 170. Thegatherers can be deployed on an as needed basis for optimal scalabilityand flexibility.

The gatherers perform flexible, policy-based data aggregation.Importantly, the various types of ISMs provide different data and indifferent formats. The gatherers normalize the data by extracting thefields needed by the CEM 170 and filling in any fields that may bemissing. Thus, the gatherers act as a distributed filtering andaggregation system. The distributed data filtering and aggregationeliminates capacity bottlenecks improving the scalability and efficiencyof the system 100 by reducing the volume of data sent on the network tothe CEM 170.

Aggregation can be done by accumulating groups of data record flows,generating a single data record for each group. That single record thenincludes the aggregated information. This reduces the flow of the datarecords.

Filtering means discarding any record that belongs to a group ofunneeded data records. Data records are unneeded if they are known to becollected elsewhere. A policy framework enables the NSP to configurewhat to collect where.

Filtering and/or aggregation can be done at any point along a dataenhancement (described below) so that aggregation schemes can be basedon enhanced data records as they are accumulated. The filtering and/oraggregation points are treated by the system 100 as pipe ISMs which areflow termination and flow starting points (ie: like an asynchronous ISMon the starting end and like a database on the terminating end). Dataenhancement paths and filtering and/or aggregation schemes can be basedon accumulated parameters such as user identification information and auser's contract type.

As noted above, the PISM can be used in the context of filtering and/oraggregation. One or more record flows can terminate at the PISM and canbe converted into one or more new record flows. Record flows are groupedbased on matching rules that apply to some of the fields in the recordflows, while others are accumulated or undergo some other operation suchas “maximum” or “average”. Once the groups of accumulated records havereached some threshold, new accumulated records are output. This can beused for example in order to achieve a business-hybrid filtering andaggregation data reduction by imposing the business rules or theusage-based products that are offered to the customer, onto the recordflows as they are collected in real-time. This is done instead ofprevious system where the information is stored in a database and thendatabase operations are performed in order to create bills or reports.The filtering and aggregation reduces the amount of data that is storedin the central database 175 while not jeopardizing the granularity ofdata that is necessary in order to create creative usage-based products.

Typically, data collected from a single source does not contain all theinformation needed for billing and accounting, such as user name andorganization. In such cases, the data is enhanced. By combining IPsession data from multiple sources, such as authentication servers, DHCPand Domain Name servers, the gatherers create meaningful session recordstailored to the NSP's specific requirements. In the example of FIG. 1,the gatherer 161 can provide information to the gatherer 162 so that thesource IP address for an Internet session from the proxy server 101 canbe combined with the domain address from the DNS server 102.

The enhancement procedure can be triggered by an asynchronous ISM. Theinformation from the asynchronous ISM is associated with fieldenhancements in the central database 175. A field enhancement defineshow a field in the central database is filled from the source dataobtained from the asynchronous ISM. Through the field enhancements, themissing parameters are added to a record using the data collected fromone or more synchronous ISMs. Enhancements are described in detailbelow.

The gatherers can include caches and buffers for storing informationfrom the ISMs. The buffers allow the gatherers to compensate forsituations where there is a loss of connection with the rest of thesystem 100. The caches can reduce the number of accesses to aninformation source. The buffer and/or cache sizes can be remotelyconfigured.

Central Event Manager (CEM)

The Central Event Manager (CEM) 170 acts as the central nervous systemof the system 100, providing centralized, efficient management andcontrols of the gatherers and the ISMs.

The CEM 170 can perform one or more of the following tasks:

Coordinates, controls, and manages the data collection process. The CEM170 coordinates the operation of the gatherers and manages the flow ofdata through the system 100 through the collection scheme defined in thesystem configuration. The latter includes the configuration of thegatherers, the ISMs, the network devices, the fields in the centraldatabase 175 (described below), and the enhancement procedures. Based onthe collection scheme the CEM 170 determines the system 100'scomputation flow (the set of operations the system 100 must perform toobtain the desired information). The CEM 170 then controls all thegatherers, instructing them to perform, in a particular sequence, theoperations defined in the computation flow. The CEM 170 receives therecords collected by the gatherers and stores them in the centraldatabase 175. NSPs can configure the CEM 170 to merge duplicate recordsbefore storing them in the central database 175. Record merging isdescribed below.

Performs clean-up and aging procedures in the database 175. The system100 collects and stores large amounts of session information every day.The CEM 170 removes old data to free space for new data periodically.The NSP defines the expiration period for the removal of old records.The CEM 170 is responsible for coordinating the removal of records fromthe central database 175. The CEM 170 places a time stamp on everyrecord when the record enters the central database 175 and deletes therecord after the time period the NSP has defined elapses.

Provides centralized system-wide upgrade, licensing, and data security.The NSP can perform version upgrades of the system 100 at the CEM 170.The gatherers can be automatically upgraded once a new version isinstalled on the host computer of the CEM 170. ISMs are also installedvia the CEM 170 and exported to the gatherers. The CEM 170 maintains alist of licenses installed in the system and verifies periodically ifthe system is properly licensed. This feature lets the NSP centrallyinstall and uninstall licenses. It also prevents unlicensed use of thesystem 100 and any of its components.

Monitors the state of the gatherers and ISMs. The gatherers periodicallycommunicate with the CEM 170. The CEM 170 continuously monitors thestate of each gatherer and network devices in the system 100. The CEM170 can be fault-tolerant, that is, it can recover from any systemcrash. It coordinates the recovery of the system 100 to its previousstate.

Central Database

The central database 175 is the optional central repository of theinformation collected by the system 100. The central database 175 is butone example of a sink for the data generated in the system 100. Otherembodiments include other configurations. The central database 175stores and maintains the data collected by the gatherers, as well as theinformation on the configuration of the system 100. Thus, in configuringthe system 100, the NSP defines what data will be stored in each fieldin the central database 175 and how that data is collected from theISMs.

The information on network sessions is stored in the database in theform of a table. Each field in the table represents a network sessionparameter. Each record describes a network session. The system 100 has aset of pre-defined fields that are configured by the CEM 170 oninstallation. The NSP can modify the central database 175 structure byadding, deleting, or modifying fields. The NSP access the data in thecentral database 175 by running queries and reports. The old data isremoved from the central database 175 to free space for new dataperiodically. You can specify the time interval for which records arestored in the central database 175. The structure of the centraldatabase 175 with some of the predefined fields is illustrated in thefollowing figure.

As each IP session may generate multiple transaction records, during themerge process the CEM 170 identifies and discards duplications,enhancing the efficiency of the data repository. Generally, data recordsare passed through the merger program, in the CEM 170, into the centraldatabase 175. However, the data records are also cached so that ifmatching records appear at some point, the already stored records can bereplaced or enhanced with the new records. The database tables thatcontain the record flows can be indexed, enhancing the efficiency of thedata repository. A merge is achieved by matching some of the fields in adata record and then merging the matching records from at least tworecord flows, transforming them into one record before updating thecentral database 175. In some embodiments, adaptive tolerance is used tomatch records. Adaptive tolerance allows for a variation in the valuesof fields that are compared (e.g., the time field value may be allowedto differ by some amount, but still be considered a match). The adaptiveaspect of the matching can include learning the appropriate period toallow for the tolerance. The reason that the records that do not matchany previous records are sent through into the central database 175, inaddition to being cached for later matching, is to avoid loss of data incase of system failure.

The following table illustrates an example of the types of recordsstored in the central database 175 by the CEM 170.

Destination Source Destination Total Source IP IP Host Host ServiceDate/Time Duration Bytes Counter 199.203.132.187 204.71.177.35pcLev.xacct.com yahoo.com http 1998-04-26 6464 435666 261019 10:56:55199.203.132.131 207.68.137.59 prodigy.xacct.com microsoft.com telnet1998-04-26 747 66743 261020 10:56:55 199.203.132.177 199.203.132.1pcEitan.xacct.com xpert.com smtp 1998-04-26 82 55667 261021 10:56:55199.203.132.173 204.162.80.182 pcAdi.xacct.com cnet.com http 1998-04-2693 33567 261022 10:56:55

The system 100 supports a non-proprietary database format enabling thecentral database 175 to run on any of a number of commercially availabledatabases (e.g., MS-SQL Server, Oracle Server, DB2, etc.).

User Interface Server and Clients

The User Interface Server (UIS) 185 allows multiple clients (e.g.terminals 180) to access the system 100 through, the Microsoft InternetExplorer with Java™ Plug-in or Netscape Navigator with Java™ Plug-in.Other embodiments can use other applications to access the system 100.The main function of the UIS 185 is to provide remote and local platformindependent control for the system 100. The UIS 185 can provide thesefunctions through windows that correspond to the various components ofthe system 100. Access to the system 100 can be password protected,allowing only authorized users to log in to the system and protectingsensitive information.

The NSP can perform one or more of the following main tasks through theUIS 185:

Configure the system 100.

Create and run queries and reports on network activity and resourceconsumption.

Register and license the system 100.

C. Data Distillation

FIG. 2 illustrates the data distillation process performed by the systemof FIG. 1. The data distillation aggregates and correlate informationfrom many different network devices to compile data useful in billingand network accounting.

First, the ISMs 210 gather data from their corresponding network device.Note that for some ISMs (e.g. pipe ISMs), real-time, policy-basedfiltering and aggregation 215 can also be done. This data is then fed tothe gatherers 220. The gatherers 220 perform data enhancement tocomplete the data from the ISMs 210. The results are provided to the CEM170. The CEM 170 performs data merges 270 to remove redundant data. Themerged data is then optionally stored in the central database 175 as abilling record 275 or is sent directly to an external system. Thebilling record information can be accessed from external applications,through the application interface 290, via a data record 280. Filteringand/aggregation and/or data enhancements can be done at any stage in thesystem 100.

D. Data Enhancement

As mentioned above, the gatherers 220 provide data enhancement featuresto complete information received from the ISMs 210. The followingdescribes some example data enhancement techniques used in someembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of data enhancement. Data enhancementcomprises a number of field enhancements. A field enhancement specifieshow the data obtained from the trigger of the enhancement procedure isprocessed before it is placed in a single field in the central database175. The data can be placed in the field directly, or new informationmay be added to the record by applying a Synchronous ISM function. (Inthe example below, the function is “resolve the IP address to a hostFQDN”). Field enhancements may involve one or multiple steps. There isno limit to the number of steps in a Field Enhancement. The data recordstarts with fields obtained from an asynchronous ISM 300. The fields inthe DR 300 are then enhanced using the field enhancements. The enhancedfields result in the DR 320.

A visual representation of an enhancement can be presented to the NSP.The enhancement may include an itinerary of ISMs starting off with anAISM, passing through PISMs, and terminating in the CEM 170. Using thisview of the system 100, the NSP need not be shown the actual flow ofdata since the flow may be optimized later in order to achieve betterperformance. This is more of a graphical logical view of how theenhancement is achieved in steps. (PISMs can terminate more than oneflow and initiate more than one flow.)

A visual representation of a field enhancement shows the per-field flowof data correlation. This process ends in the CEM 170 or in a PISM. TheNSP supplies information telling the system 100 how to reach each of theterminating fields (in the CEM 170 or the PISM) starting off from theinitiating fields (PISM or AISM). Each step of enhancement defines crosscorrelation with some SISM function.

FIG. 4A illustrates various field enhancements (410 through 440). Afield enhancement includes applying zero or more functions to a fieldbefore storing the field in a specified field in the central database175.

One-step Field Enhancement 410. The initial source data from theasynchronous ISM is placed directly in a field in the central database175. Example: the field enhancement for the Source IP field.

Two-step Field Enhancement 420. The initial source data from theasynchronous ISM is used to obtain new additional data from asynchronous network device and the new data is placed in a field in thecentral database 175. Example: the field enhancement for the Source Hostfield.

Three-step Enhancement 430. The initial source data from theasynchronous ISM is used to obtain additional data from a synchronousISM. The result is used to obtain more data from another ISM and theresult is placed in a field in the central database 175.

The following illustrates an example data enhancement. Suppose the dataobtained from a proxy server 101 contains the source IP address of agiven session, such as 199.203.132.2, but not the complete domainaddress of the host computer (its Fully Qualified Domain Name), such aswww.xacct.com. The name of the host can be obtained by another networkdevice—the Domain Name System (DNS 102) server. The DNS server 102contains information that matches IP addresses of host computers totheir Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs). Through an enhancementprocedure the information collected from the proxy server 101 can besupplemented by the information from the DNS 102. Therefore, the name ofthe host is added to the data (the data record) collected from the proxyserver 101. The process of adding new data to the data record fromdifferent network devices can be repeated several times until allrequired data is collected and the data record is placed in the centraldatabase 175.

FIG. 4B illustrates another example data enhancement where an enhancedrecord 490 is created from an initial netflow record 492. Fields in theenhanced record 490 are enhanced from the radius record 494, the QoSpolicy server record 496, the NMS DB record 498, and the LDAP record499.

Defining Enhancement Procedures

The following describes the process for defining enhancement proceduresin some embodiments of the system. Typically defining an enhancementprocedures for the system 100 includes (1) defining enhancementprocedures for each asynchronous ISM and (2) configuring fieldenhancements for all fields in the central database 175 for which theNSP wants to collect data originating from an asynchronous ISM thattriggers the corresponding enhancement procedure.

An enhancement procedure can be defined as follows:

1. Access the CEM 170 using the UIS 180.

2. Select the enhancement procedures list using the UIS 180.

3. Define the name of the new enhancement procedure.

4. Select a trigger for the new enhancement procedure. The trigger cancorrespond to any asynchronous ISM in the system 100. Alternatively, thetrigger can correspond to any asynchronous ISM in the system 100 thathas not already been assigned to an enhancement procedure.

5. Optionally, a description for the enhancement procedure can beprovided.

6. The new enhancement procedure can then be automatically populatedwith the existing fields in the central database 175. Optionally, theNSP can define the fields (which could then be propagated to the centraldatabase 175). Alternatively, based upon the type of asynchronous ISM, apreset set of fields could be proposed to the NSP for editing. What isimportant is that the NSP can define field procedures to enhance thedata being put into the data records of the central database 175.

7. The NSP can then define the field enhancements for every field in thenew enhancement procedure for which the NSP wants to collect data fromthe ISM that is the trigger of the new enhancement procedure.

Defining Field Enhancements

Defining a field enhancement involves specifying the set of rules usedto fill a database field from the information obtained from the triggerof the enhancement procedure. The NSP defines field enhancements foreach field in which NSP wants to collect data from the trigger. If nofield enhancements are defined, no data from the trigger will becollected in the fields. For example, suppose the firewall asynchronousISM 130 that triggers an enhancement procedure. Suppose the centraldatabase 175 has the following fields: source IP, source host,destination IP, destination host, user name, total bytes, service,date/time, and URL. If the NSP wants to collect session data for eachfield except the URL from the firewall ISM 130, which triggers theenhancement procedure, the NSP defines a field enhancement for eachfield with the exception of the URL.

In some embodiments, the field enhancements are part of the enhancementprocedure and the NSP can only define and modify them when theenhancement procedure is not enabled.

The field enhancements can be defined in a field enhancementconfiguration dialog box. The field enhancement configuration dialog boxcan have two panes. The first displays the name of the enhancementprocedure, the name of its trigger, and the name and data type of thefield for which the NSP is defining the field enhancement. The second isdynamic and interactive. Its content changes depending on the NSP'sinput. When first displayed, it has two toggle buttons, End andContinue, and a list next to them. The content of the list depends onthe button depressed.

When End is depressed, the list contains all output fields whose datatype matches the data type of the field for which the NSP is definingthe field enhancement. For example, if the field's data type is IPAddress, the list contains all fields that are of the same type, such assource IP and destination IP that the AISM supplies. The fields in thelist can come from two sources: (1) the source data which the gathererreceives from the trigger and (2) the result obtained by applying asynchronous ISM function as a preceding step in the field enhancement.The following notation is used for the fields:

OutputFieldName for the output of a field origination from the trigger

SISName.FunctionName(InputArgument).OutputField for the output of afield that is the result of applying a function

SISName . . . OutputField for the output of a field that is the resultof applying a function as the final step of a field enhancement

The following examples are presented.

Source IP is the field provided by the trigger of the enhancementprocedure that contains the IP address of the source host.

DNS . . . Host Name and DNS.Name(Source IP).Host name are the names of afield originating from the resolved function Name of a network devicecalled DNS that resolves the IP address to a domain address. The inputargument of the function is the field provided by the trigger of theenhancement procedure, called source IP. It contains the IP address ofthe source host. The function returns the output field called Host Namethat contains the domain address of the source host. The notation DNS .. . Host Name is used when the field is the result of applying thefunction as the final step of a field enhancement. The notation isDNS.Name(Source IP). Host Name is used when the field is used as theinput to another function.

In the user interface, if End is unavailable, none of the output fieldsmatches the data type of the field.

When Continue is depressed, the list contains all applicable functionsof the available synchronous network device configured in the system100. If the preceding output does not match the input to a function, itcannot be applied and does not appear on the list.

The following notation is used for the functions:

SISName.FunctionName(InputFieldName:InputFieldDataType)→(OutputFieldName:OutputFieldDataType)

When the function has multiple input and/or output arguments, thenotation reflects this. The arguments are separated by commas.

The following example shows a field enhancement.

DNS. Address(Host Name:String)→(IP Address:IP Address)

Where DNS is the name of the synchronous ISM (or network device) as itappears in the system configuration.

Address is the name of the function.

(Host Name:String) is the input to the function host FQDN of data typeString

(IP Address:IP Address) is the output IP address of data type IP Address

The NSP can define the field enhancement by choosing items from thelist. The list contains the option <none> when the End button isdepressed. Choosing this option has the same effect as not defining afield enhancement: no data from the trigger will be stored in the fieldin the central database 175.

E. Record Merges

FIG. 5 illustrates an example record merge. Record merging removesduplicate records from the central database 175.

The following example shows how merges work and illustrates the need formerging duplicate records. Suppose the system 100 is using twoasynchronous ISMs 110 and 130. All outbound network traffic goingthrough the proxy server 101 is routed through the firewall 103. Thefirewall 103 records the proxy server 101 as the source of all sessionspassing through the proxy server 101, although they originate fromdifferent workstations on the network. At the same time, the proxyserver 101 records the destination of all sessions as the firewall 103,although their actual destinations are the different Internet sites.

Therefore, all sessions are logged twice by the system 100 and therecords are skewed. The data from the firewall 103 indicates thedestination of a given session, but not the source (see data record520), while the data from the proxy server 101 records the source, butnot the destination (see data record 510). Defining a merge eliminatesthe duplication of records.

A merge can be defined instructing the CEM 170 to store the destinationdata obtained from the firewall 103 and the source data from the proxyserver 101 in the central database 175. The merge will also eliminatethe problem of skewed data by storing the correct source and destinationof the session in the central database 175. Both network devices provideinformation on the URL. The latter can be used to identify the fact thatthe two seemingly independent records (510 and 520) are actually twologs of the same session.

Two enhancement procedures are defined for the example of FIG. 5. Thetrigger of the first, designated Flow One, is the Proxy ServerAsynchronous Information Source Module. The trigger of the second, FlowTwo, is the Firewall Asynchronous Information Source Module. The recordsfrom Flow One and Flow Two are records of the same session. They bothhave the same value for the URL field. Based on this value, the CEM 170identifies the two records are double logs of the same session. Itmerges the two data records taking the Source IP value from Flow One andthe Destination IP from Flow Two as the values to be stored in thecentral database 175.

Defining Merges

The following describes defining merges. A merge is a set of rules thatspecify how duplicate records from multiple enhancement procedures mustbe identified and combined before being stored in the central database175. The NSP can merge the records from two or more enhancementprocedures. To define a merge, the NSP identifies the followinginformation.

The enhancement procedures included in the merge.

How to identify duplicate records (which fields of the records mustmatch).

How to combine the records; that is, for each field, which value (fromwhich enhancement procedure) must be stored in the central database 175.

(Optional)

If the NSP does not specify how records must be combined, the recordsare merged as follows:

When the values in all but one of the fields are null, the non-nullvalue is stored.

When the fields contain non-null values, the value of the first recordreceived (chronologically) is stored.

F. Additional Embodiments

The following describes additional embodiments of the invention.

In some embodiments, the user interface used by an NSP to configure thesystem 100 can be presented as a graphical representation of the dataenhancement process. Every step in the enhancement can be shown as ablock joined to another block (or icon or some graphicalrepresentation). The properties of a block define the operations withinthe block. In some embodiments, the entire data enhancement process fromnetwork devices to the central database 175 can be shown by linkedgraphics where the properties of a graphic are the properties of theenhancement at that stage.

In some embodiments, multiple CEMs 170 and/or central databases 175 canbe used as data sources (back ends) for datamart or other databases orapplications (e.g., customer care and billing systems).

In some embodiments, the types of databases used are not necessarilyrelational. Object databases or other databases can be used.

In some embodiments, other platforms are used. Although the abovedescription of the system 100 has been IP network focussed with Unix orWindows NT systems supporting the elements, other networks (non-IPnetworks) and computer platforms can be used. What is important is thatsome sort of processing and storing capability is available at thegatherers, the CEMs, the databases, and the user interface servers.

In some embodiments, the gatherers and other elements of the system 100,can be remotely configured, while in other embodiments, some of theelements need to be configured directly. For example, a gatherer may notbe remotely configurable, in which case, the NSP must interface directlywith the computer running the gatherer.

In other embodiments, the general ideas described herein can be appliedto other distributed data enhancement problems. For example, someembodiments of the invention could be used to perform data sourceextraction and data preparation for data warehousing applications. Thegatherers would interface with ISMs that are designed to extract datafrom databases (or other data sources). The gatherers would performfiltering and aggregation depending upon the needs of the datamart (insuch an embodiment, the central database and CEM could be replacedwith/used with a datamart). The data enhancement would then be donebefore storing the information in the datamart.

FIG. 6 illustrates a system 600 where multiple systems 100 are linkedtogether. This system could be an ISPs point of presence accountingsystem. The system 620 and the system 610 can store detailed networkaccounting information in their local detailed accounting databases.This information can then be aggregated and sent over the more expensivelong distance links to the billing database in the system 630. Customerservice information can still be accessed at the detailed accountingdatabase, but the aggregated information may be all that is needed tocreate the bills.

G. Conclusions

A network accounting and billing system and method has been described.In some embodiments, the system can access any network relatedinformation sources such as traffic statistics provided by routers andswitching hubs as well as application server access logs. These areaccumulated in a central database for creating auditing, accounting andbilling reports. Because of the distributed architecture, filtering andenhancements, the system efficiently and accurately collects the networkusage information for storage in a form that is useful for billing andaccounting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for billing and charging for networkusage, comprising: (a) collecting network communications usageinformation in real-time from network devices at a plurality of layersutilizing multiple gatherers each including a plurality of informationsource modules each interfacing with one of the network devices andcapable of communicating using a protocol specific to the network devicecoupled thereto, the network devices selected from the group consistingof routers, switches, firewalls, authentication servers, web hosts,proxy servers, netflow servers, databases, mail servers, RADIUS servers,and domain name servers, the gatherers being positioned on a segment ofthe network on which the network devices coupled thereto are positionedfor minimizing an impact of the gatherers on the network; (b)translating the network communications usage information collected fromthe network devices utilizing the information source modules; (c)caching the network communications usage information collected from thenetwork devices utilizing the gatherers; (d) normalizing the networkcommunications usage information with the gatherers by excluding fieldsnot required by a central event manager coupled to the gatherers; (e)defining an enhancement procedure utilizing the central event managerby: (i) accessing the central event manager, (ii) naming the enhancementprocedure, (iii) selecting a trigger for the enhancement procedure, thetrigger corresponding to at least one of the information source modules,(iv) identifying a field type to be enhanced, (v) listing a plurality offields that match the field type to be enhanced, (vi) listing aplurality of functions available based on the information source modulecorresponding to the trigger, (vii) allowing the user to choose at leastone of the listed fields, and (viii) allowing a user to choose at leastone of the listed functions; (f) displaying the enhancement procedure ona graphical user interface by representing each function as a separategraphical representation, wherein the graphical representations areshown to be joined to each other in accordance with the enhancementprocedure; (g) coordinating the collection of the network communicationsusage information by the gatherers utilizing the central event manager;(h) filtering the network communications usage information utilizing thecentral event manager; (i) aggregating the network communications usageinformation and the data records utilizing the central event manager forreducing a number of the data records; (j) enhancing the aggregation inaccordance with the defined enhancement procedure, the enhancementincluding: (i) receiving the network communications usage information,(ii) determining whether the trigger has occurred, (iii) if the triggerhas occurred, applying the at least one chosen function associated withthe enhancement procedure to the network communications usageinformation, (iv) identifying results of the function, (v) using theresults of the function to gather additional network communicationsusage information from other gatherers, and (vi) enhancing the chosenfield with the additional network communications usage information; (k)completing a plurality of data records from the filtered networkcommunications usage information by accessing user account information,and determining for each data record a corresponding source IP address,a corresponding domain name, a corresponding type of service used, and acorresponding amount of time that the service was used, the plurality ofdata records corresponding to network usage by a plurality of users; (l)merging duplicate records in the plurality of data records for enhancingefficiency; (m) billing the users based on the data records; (n) timestamping the data records; (o) storing the time stamped data records intables in a central database coupled to the central event manager at auser-specified interval; (p) deleting the stored data records upon thecessation of a predetermined amount of time after the storage utilizingthe timestamp; (q) periodically determining whether the network devicesare currently licensed; (r) submitting network activity queries to thecentral database for retrieving information on activity of the network;(s) outputting a network activity report based on the network activityqueries; (t) submitting resource consumption queries to the centraldatabase for retrieving information on resource consumption in thenetwork; (u) outputting a resource consumption report based on theresource consumption queries; (v) continuously monitoring a state of thegatherers; (w) detecting a fault; (x) utilizing the state of thegatherers and the stored data records to recover from the fault upon thedetection thereof; (y) generating an alert upon the occurrence of anevent utilizing the information source modules; (z) wherein the datarecords are in a data record format having a plurality of fieldsincluding a source IP field, a destination IP field, a source hostfield, a destination host field, a service type field, a date and timefield, a duration field, a total number of bytes field, and a counterfield.